Week 43 - ITF ($75K) - Barnstaple, UK Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

RE: Week 43 - ITF ($75K) - Barnstaple, UK Hard

philwrig · Hall of fame

Anne 6-3 1-1* 3 holds of serve on the trot !

steven · Tennis legend

Peter too wrote:
The ITF site at present has Laura beating Bychkova 6-4 6-4
Is this just wishful thinking?

I'm afraid so The ITF have gone a bit Australian on us!

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

philwrig wrote:
tony_orient wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Too easy for Bychkova 6-4 6-4.

Were the foot blisters a hindrance ? or is this further proof that Laura struggles to maintain her level day after day in a tournament ?
Needs to improve on that next year. It just looked to me that the focus wasn't there today, too many soft errors.
I thnk that often when Laura makes errors during a rally it is because she doesn't get the footwork right any over-relies on her excellent hand eye co-ordination, meaning she plays too many shots from awkward positions. Certainly if moving was causing her some pain today, and if she was a bit tired from yesterday that would have made her footwork worse.
I think you are spot on with that observation, but her level of focus also seems to vary day to day, match to match, big occasion/ low key match, smaller occasion.

Kinda why I wanted Hev to win. Laura's abit like Tsonga in the up and downess, Hev would've had a better chance on this match to get tow Brits into the semis.

Still, Laura's still young, so will hopefully improve consitency.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Cummon Anne!

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

philwrig wrote:
tony_orient wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Too easy for Bychkova 6-4 6-4.

Were the foot blisters a hindrance ? or is this further proof that Laura struggles to maintain her level day after day in a tournament ?
Needs to improve on that next year. It just looked to me that the focus wasn't there today, too many soft errors.

Still been a strong end to the year, and with a good offseason in Las Vegas, surely its only a matter of time before she breaks into the top 100.
I thnk that often when Laura makes errors during a rally it is because she doesn't get the footwork right any over-relies on her excellent hand eye co-ordination, meaning she plays too many shots from awkward positions. Certainly if moving was causing her some pain today, and if she was a bit tired from yesterday that would have made her footwork worse.

Hopefully Anne will give us at least one GB semi-finalist - I'm feeling quite confident about this one (even more so now she's 2-0 up!)
I think you are spot on with that observation, but her level of focus also seems to vary day to day, match to match, big occasion/ low key match, smaller occasion.

I think that's a fair comment, and her focus can also come and go within matches as well (yesterday being an example). Hopefully this will improve as she plays more matches and gains more maturity.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Were the foot blisters a hindrance ? or is this further proof that Laura struggles to maintain her level day after day in a tournament ?
Needs to improve on that next year. It just looked to me that the focus wasn't there today, too many soft errors.

Still been a strong end to the year, and with a good offseason in Las Vegas, surely its only a matter of time before she breaks into the top 100.

In an article in this morning's Times, OEM says that "In defining the body and talent to handle the rigours of the women's professional circuit, Robson is spending three weeks under the care of Darren Cahill, [...] Cahill's camp is where Robson, her mother, Kathy, coach, Luke Milligan, and fitness trainer, Steve Coetze, will piece together the strategy to underpin her progress next year, in which her minimum desires are to reach the top 100 for the first time and to earn a place in the Great Britain Olympic team." Laura's apparently "very excited by it". smile

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

Hey Stircrazy, can you post the link please.

tony_orient · ATP qualifying

Anne was a break down in set 2 but it's now 6-3 4-4*

philwrig · Hall of fame

Stircrazy wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Were the foot blisters a hindrance ? or is this further proof that Laura struggles to maintain her level day after day in a tournament ?
Needs to improve on that next year. It just looked to me that the focus wasn't there today, too many soft errors.

Still been a strong end to the year, and with a good offseason in Las Vegas, surely its only a matter of time before she breaks into the top 100.
In an article in this morning's Times, OEM says that "In defining the body and talent to handle the rigours of the women's professional circuit, Robson is spending three weeks under the care of Darren Cahill, [...] Cahill's camp is where Robson, her mother, Kathy, coach, Luke Milligan, and fitness trainer, Steve Coetze, will piece together the strategy to underpin her progress next year, in which her minimum desires are to reach the top 100 for the first time and to earn a place in the Great Britain Olympic team." Laura's apparently "very excited by it".

Is it worth a £1 of my hard earned cash to read the full article ? I believe it is Kotze not Coetze, at least that's how I have seen it spelt in the past.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Helen40 wrote:
Hey Stircrazy, can you post the link please.

Sorry, Helen, no can do: I haven't actually checked, but it's bound to be hidden behind News International's bloody pay wall! furious I have a subscription for the print edition on Mondays to Fridays + The Sunday Times, but that doesn't entitle me to free access to the whole of the Times site. Pre-pay wall days, I'd automatically have included the link. I'm afraid I simply typed out the bits I quoted.

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

No worries, thanks for the bits that you've put up. Boo to the times.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Anne won 6-3 7-6, great job, will need to play better to beat Barthel tomorrow though.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
philwrig wrote:
Were the foot blisters a hindrance ? or is this further proof that Laura struggles to maintain her level day after day in a tournament ?
Needs to improve on that next year. It just looked to me that the focus wasn't there today, too many soft errors.

Still been a strong end to the year, and with a good offseason in Las Vegas, surely its only a matter of time before she breaks into the top 100.
In an article in this morning's Times, OEM says that "In defining the body and talent to handle the rigours of the women's professional circuit, Robson is spending three weeks under the care of Darren Cahill, [...] Cahill's camp is where Robson, her mother, Kathy, coach, Luke Milligan, and fitness trainer, Steve Coetze, will piece together the strategy to underpin her progress next year, in which her minimum desires are to reach the top 100 for the first time and to earn a place in the Great Britain Olympic team." Laura's apparently "very excited by it".
Is it worth a £1 of my hard earned cash to read the full article ? I believe it is Kotze not Coetze, at least that's how I have seen it spelt in the past.

Hard to say, Phil. There's two-page spread on tennis today. The article from which I quoted above takes up all of the first page (that said, the bottom third of each page is taken up by advertising!), with a colour photo of Hev (with a rather despairing look on her face!), some comment on the match itself, an aside about JoKo ("an Australian-born player with pretentions [sic] to play for Britain some day"), a few words about Naomi B & a few more about AK's 2012 prospects. The second page is taken up by a larger, not very flattering (she's grimacing as she reaches for a backhand!), photo of Laura & the follow-up to yesterday's report on Caroline Wozniacki's call for the powers that be to do something about the noise levels in women's tennis (as if they have the guts to do that!) under the heading "Azarenka delivers derisory snort to prospect of being told: 'Stop grunting'" (that inevitably mentioned Shriekapova, Shriekarenka & MLdB wink ).

I rather wish OEM had checked his facts a bit better: apart from the fact that he can't spell "pretensions", I think his use of the word was unintentionally (I think he actually meant "aspirations" - he's often guilty of malapropisms, I find) disparaging & potentially inaccurate (I thought I saw a post on here earlier this week to the effect that Jo was now officially a Brit). The other obvious example is the spelling of Kotze (I copied "Coetze" letter for letter from the paper), about which, having checked, I think you're correct! disbelief

philwrig · Hall of fame

I did in the end pay a £1, which they automatically keep taking from your card until you cancel, which no doubt won't be the easiest of tasks.
I found it interesting the reference to Laura's play between R1 and R2, it backs up what we generally believe that you can't predict how Laura will perform day to day.